In a rod mill, at least in one form thereof, as the rolled down rod leaves the final rolls, it is passed through a laying head. This causes the rod to form in helices or loops, and as the helices leave the laying head, they are presented to a conveyor, where the helices or loops are laid in overlapping relationship on the conveyor and are transported to a collection point which, in some cases, is what is known as a reform tub. There the helices fall upon one another as they leave the conveyor. The purpose of the conveyor is to collect the helices as they leave the laying head and also to permit time for the rod stock to cool. In some cases, air is blown through the conveyor to uniformly cool the rod stock.
As previously mentioned, the helices are dropped into what may be called a reform tub or, in some cases, they fall on to a central mandrel. After the reform tub or mandrel is full, the resulting pile of helices will be removed from the reform tub or mandrel and then compacted and banded or tied parallel to the axis of the coil for transportation. Since all of the helices are of the same size, they do not package well. Subsequent handling and shipping of these coils causes the bands or ties to become loose, resulting in damage to the coils.
This problem has long been recognized in rod mills, but no successful solution has yet been found.
Accordingly, the present invention provides new and improved method and apparatus for acting upon the helices or loops of formed rod stock as such helices or loops approach and arrive at the end of the conveyor, such that the centers of the loops are offset in succeeding loops as the loops are dropped from the conveyor into the reform tub and each helix or loop is slightly angularly displaced from the preceding helix or loop so that there is little tendency or possibility of loops falling within one another in the reform tub or on the madrel or during compacting and binding or tying to produce payoff tangles in subsequent payoff process.